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Bikini basketball dribbles into Canada

At HoopDome on Sunday night, a dozen women practised free-throws and dribbling at tryouts for the bikini league, which plans to debut its weekly pay-per-view game on Aug. 17.

About a dozen women tried out for the bikini basketball team at HoopDome on Sunday evening. (VINCE TALOTTA / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

By Cynthia VuketsStaff Reporter

Tues., Aug. 9, 2011

A new Toronto sports company — Bikini Basketball Entertainment — is having little trouble finding female players to peel off their clothes for a chance to play.

In other words, the focus is more on double Ds than double doubles.

At HoopDome at Downsview Park on Sunday night, a dozen women practised free-throws and dribbling at tryouts for the bikini league, which plans to debut its weekly pay-per-view game on Aug. 17.

Bikini basketball comes hot on the heels of tryouts for the Toronto Triumph, the newest team in the U.S.-based Lingerie Football League, set to hit the field in September. More than 100 women, including the niece of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, tried out for the football team at a day-long event in June.

The new teams are a trend that has leaders in women’s sports feeling conflicted and concerned. While bikini basketball and lingerie football provide an outlet for women athletes who might not otherwise get a chance to play, the obvious focus on the players’ sexuality is a cause for dismay.

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“Some of the athletes (in the Lingerie Football League) say ‘I’m a good athlete’ and it’s great that you’re a good athlete and it’s too bad that there’s not a more professional forum where you can show that other than having to wear hardly any clothes,” says Karin Lofstrom, executive director of the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity. “It is a bit frustrating in the work that we’re doing in trying to have women’s sport taken seriously.”

Krista Ford, daughter of councillor Doug Ford and middle linebacker on the new Toronto Triumph, told the Star in April that she plays beach volleyball and soccer in a bikini, so playing football in lingerie wasn’t a stretch.

Bikini Basketball Entertainment will begin with an online pay-per-view model, then expand to a full travelling team that will bring in cash from ticket sales, player appearances and endorsements, says CEO Glenn Timak.

The Toronto Triumph football team will make money from ticket sales and concessions from games at Ricoh Coliseum. The lingerie league currently has 12 teams and is set to expand further into Canada.

The Los Angeles-based Lingerie Basketball League has four teams.

Lingerie Football League founder Mitchell Mortaza says that while the concept may create controversy, the teams are able to attract talented athletes who have little other opportunity to pursue a sports career. He adds that his coaches and executives stress the athletic side of the venture and ensuire teams always play at reputable stadiums and are backed by mainstream advertisers.

“We’ve had our players go on to feature film, to reality series, covers of (sports) magazines,” he says. “All these things that would never otherwise happen.”

“The concept in general I think has some sustainability,” says Keith McIntyre, a sports-marketing expert based in Burlington, adding that “I don’t think that they’ll have the business model volume that a traditional sports league would have.”

But Anniesa Debrou, a former high-school basketball player who observed the bikini basketball tryouts while watching a friend’s game at the HoopDome, is skeptical. “I think they’re just picking girlie girls,” she says. “They’re all getting air balls.”

Gary Roberts, another bystander, is more forgiving: “That’s natural beauty,” he says. “It’s entertaining.” He’d pay to watch bikini basketball and lingerie football, he explains, but would be just as likely to tune into a Women’s NBA game. The 12-team WNBA has been around for 14 years and is a rare example of a professional women’s sports league in North America..

Alyssa Stark was chosen for bikini basketball’s first episode after trying out in a pink tank top and tight black shorts. The York University student sees it as a chance to make money. She tried out for lingerie football and made it to the top 40, but said her catching just wasn’t up to par.

“It’s really about the football skill (in that league),” she said.

For others, skimpy sports apparel is a way to get noticed.

“I just want to get my face out there,” says Thea Dorsey, 22, who didn’t make the cut. “I just want to get known.”

Sport sociologist Helen Jefferson Lenskyj points out that sex has long been used to market women’s sports, but it may not be as effective a tactic as league operators think: “You see the international recognition that’s given to women’s soccer and they’re covered up neck to knee. There isn’t pressure there to strip down.”

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